Every year, we present the 50 top corporate brands in Nigeria for the year.
These are brands that have been able to weather the storms, particularly in the past year, achieving growth in a recession, with better understanding of the market, ‘aggressively’ worked towards meeting the expectation of the very discerning consumers, delivering on their promises and many gaining equity in the midst of the difficult times.
With the volume of competition that businesses face in most industries, it has never been more important to stand out and develop unique identity and value proposition through strategic branding. These brands are now part of our lives; they represent more than their products/services and have become part of the popular culture. They provide the ultimate experience, drive innovation, as well as deliver quality products and services.

At this very important time in our nationhood, there is no overstatement of the important roles top brands are playing in our national space. They are vital elements that sustain daily lives, providing the much needed jobs, goods and services, create wealth and also socially responsible, with many interventions that endeared them more to the people. They understand this and are working towards satisfying the people’s need. In order word, consumer needs has become the brand promise. Power really belongs to the people.
One of the driven forces that will propel the Nigeria brand forward to the next level as a nation, particularly now, and ‘enhancing the value of the Nigeria brand’ which is the cardinal objective of the annual Brand Nigeria Leadership Forum is the positive disposition of the brands that power the Nigeria economy.
So, at TOP 50 BRANDS NIGERIA®, we evaluate, rate and celebrate top corporate brands that have consistently maintained leadership positions in their categories, living up to their promises.They have been able to master the art of brand building to the point earning equity. Things are changing very quickly in our world today, including consumer’s tastes and preferences, particularly in an open market where there are options. These brands have showed that they understand these changes and are very quickly adapting, with many preempting the changes before they occur.
We also have the 10 Brands to Watch, though they are not on the TOP 50 BRANDS league table yet, but they have shown promises and potentials within a period of time. The exciting thing about the brand to watch this year is that they are mostly home-grown brands.
Brand is a promise an entity makes to its audience. It’s a description of its value and character. To some extent, it’s a mission; it’s how you create and deliver value. Also, Keeping this promise result in equity which sustains the entity. The brands listed here are those that have skillfully created desired perception in the minds of their target audience through simple, clear and well defined messages.
There is an increasing brand consciousness among the consumers and the brands knew it. That is why they take advantage of every media, particularly new media to engage the consumers.
Brand messages have shifted from what the brand are offering, rather to what the consumers really want. Brands are now tilting toward the consumers need than what they offer.
Without any doubt, it has gone beyond beautiful imagery and slogans to creating relationship and somewhat influencing the conversations especially when they aren’t there. These are some of the factors that separate the winners.
Brand is about experience. Any brand can make promise; however, the real name or description of the brand in the mind of the audience is his/her EXPERIENCE. A beautiful communication can only raise awareness or reinforced the description in the consumer’s mind. If consumers know a brand promise is empty, they will just scoff at the disconnect between the message and the actual customer experience.
A promise delivered earns equity and continuous equity means brand healthiness which ultimately sustains the company overtime. Regardless of your huge media budget, if you fail to deliver on the promise, your value depreciates and this affects the bottom-line. So, brand must always find a way to sync its message to the customer experience.
Brands are powerful drivers of choice and influence the decisions we make as consumers, employees, business decision makers, and investors. It has become one of the most valuable assets of a company. Strong brands create loyalty, help companies attract and retain talent, drive competitive advantage, and even reduce business risk.
To achieve the 50 top brands in Nigeria, we use the Brand Strength Measurement, BSM, a specially designed model that takes basic qualitative elements to determine brand valuation and strength. The model checks consumer’s knowledge of a brand using the top on the mind survey. It’s largely observed that consumers were able to recall brands they relate with often, whose product/services they also use.

BRAND STRENGTH MEASUREMENT, BSM.
The BSM model is a brand measuring tool that evaluates a brand’s intangible assets from consumer’s point of view, using basic qualitative variables. It measures the strength level of a brand and in some ways indicates weakness. It is an opinion on a brands ability to perform its expectations and deliver on promise. It also attempt to test what the brand is to a consumer.
The model serves the purpose of helping brand owners to know how their brand is faring and also useful for resource allocation. The research approach do not put financial value on brands, instead, it measures consumer perception and other qualities.
For the top brands measurement, each brand is weighed against the factors listed below and their variables. The 50 brands with the highest cumulative is the TOP 50 BRANDS NIGERIA® for the year.
These factors are:
• Brand Popularity:
• Category Leadership:.
• Innovation:
• Quality Element:
• Online Engagement:
• National Spread:
• Corporate Social Responsibility:
HIGHLIGHT OF THE TOP 50 BRANDS NIGERIA®2017
50% of the Top brands are home grown
25 of the 50 top brands for 2017 are home grown, this is the highest we have had since 2013. This shows an improvement in performance among home grown brands, particularly in the midst of a troubling recession which the country just got out from. Many of these brands have even spread to other African countries and beyond, such brands as Dangote Industries, GTBank, First Bank, Zenith, Gobacom, UBA etc.
MTN Nigeria retains its top position
Again, this telecoms giant emerged as the most valuable in the annual rating with 80.4 point, a 7.1% reduction from the record 86.1 last year.
Dangote Industries Most Valuable Nigerian Brand
Dangote Industries had a record jump among the top 10 brands, jumping 5 places to emerge the 2nd position and the most valuable Nigeria brand for 2017.
GTBank led the banking sector and came as second among the Nigerian brands.
Channels Television and Shoprite are new entrants this year.
Union Bank of Nigeria emerged the higher gainer this year jumping 25 places to emerged on the 23rd point from its 45th last year. The bank had a successful rebranding exercise and has also improve in service delivery. Its once standing horse seems on a motion now with an exciting blue.
Other top gainers are Access Bank. It jumped 24 places, now on 16th position, Diamond bank gained 19 places, now on the 27th position and Olam appreciated by 12 and emerged 38thposition.
Banking and Financial Services took 20% of the top brands, amounting to 10 brands
The consumers good had 8 entries this year. Nigeria with it’s over 180million people and mostly within the active demography is a good market for any consumer brand in the world. DufilPrima, the makers of popular Indomie and Power oil led the sector in this year’s rating, this is closely followed by Nestle.
Just like the consumer goods, the Food & Beverages also have the benefit of Nigeria’s large market. They had 6 entries, led by Coca-Cola Nigeria which came second on the top 50 table.
Increasing Conglomerate: We are seeing a continued growth among the conglomerate, not even the economic situation of the past year could slow them down. Conglomerate had 6 entries, highest since 2013.
Oil and Gas has 6 entries: The Nigerian economy is very dependent on this sector; the country gets its largest foreign earning from crude oil. The oil and gas category is led by Total. However, 3 of the 6 listed Oil and gas brands in the top 50 table are Nigerian brands. We look forward to more home grown brands taking front row in this sector which is still the backbone of the Nigerian economy.
The media sector is really driving traffic with innovation
Telecoms Takes the lead and 3 of them among the top 10. Its important for me to state that 9mobile rode on the strength of the rested Etisalat brand.
Retail had first entry
Olam Represents the Agriculture Sector
10 BRANDS TO WATCH
For the 10 Top Brands to Watch, it is important to state that only the TOP 50 BRANDS NIGERIA® were subjected to the BSM review. However, a brand needs to have sufficient entries in the TOM survey for qualification in the brands to watch category.
Very excitingly, eight of the 10 brands to watch this year are home grown, while 2 are international. Out of the 10 brands, 5 are ICT related with particular interest in retail. This is good because it shows the online retail sector is gaining ground aggressively in Nigeria as they do in developed economies.
We look forward to these brands breaking into the Top 50 table shortly.

S/NO
BRAND NAME
BSM INDEX
CATEGORISATION
1
MTN
80.4
TELECOMS
2
DANGOTE
72.32
CONGLOMERATE
3
COCA-COLA
68.05
FOOD & BEVERAGES
4
GTB
67.9
BANKING &FINANCIAL SERVICES
5
FIRST BANK
61.9
BANKING &FINANCIAL SERVICES
6
ZENITH
58.85
BANKING &FINANCIAL SERVICES
7
GLO
58.2
TELECOMS
8
DUFIL PRIMA
58.08
CONSUMER GOODS
9
NESTLE
57.89
CONSUMER GOODS
10
AIRTEL
57.4
TELECOMS
11
UNILEVER
56.58
CONSUMER GOODS
12
UBA
55.89
BANKING &FINANCIAL SERVICES
13
GUINNESS
54.71
FOOD & BEVERAGES
14
ACCESS BANK
54.7
BANKING &FINANCIAL SERVICES
15
CHI LIMITED
54.04
FOOD & BEVERAGES
16
TOYOTA NIGERIA
53.54
AUTOMOBILE
17
NIGERIAN BREWERIES
53.11
FOOD & BEVERAGES
18
MULTICHOICE
52.98
MEDIA
19
PUNCH
52.92
MEDIA
20
CHANNELS TV
52.59
MEDIA
21
SEVEN UP
52.22
FOOD & BEVERAGES
22
SAMSUNG
51.38
ELECTRONICS
23
UNION BANK
50.44
BANKING &FINANCIAL SERVICES
24
JULIUS BERGER
50.39
BUILDING & CONSTRUCTION
25
TOTAL
50.12
OIL & GAS
26
FRIESLAND
49.42
CONSUMER GOODS
27
DIAMOND BANK
49.11
BANKING &FINANCIAL SERVICES
28
SHOPRITE
49.02
RETAIL
29
FLOURMILL
48.88
FOOD & BEVERAGES
30
HERITAGE BANK
48.8
BANKING &FINANCIAL SERVICES
31
CADBURY
48.62
CONSUMER GOODS
32
P & G
48.19
CONSUMER GOODS
33
LAFARGE
47.67
BUILDING & CONSTRUCTION
34
9Mobile
47.6
TELECOMS
35
SHELL
55.5
OIL & GAS
36
UAC
47.19
CONGLOMERATE
37
AXA-MANSARD
46.27
BANKING &FINANCIAL SERVICES
38
OLAM
45.94
AGRICULTURE
39
11PLC
45.88
OIL & GAS
40
promasidor
45.39
CONSUMER GOODS
41
bua
44.91
CONGLOMERATE
42
OANDO
43.66
OIL & GAS
43
COSCHARIS
43.61
CONGLOMERATE
44
DAAR
43.45
MEDIA
45
stanbic ibtc
43.39
BANKING &FINANCIAL SERVICES
46
pz
42.79
CONSUMER GOODS
47
dana
42.55
CONGLOMERATE
48
HONEYWELL
42.23
CONGLOMERATE
49
FORTE OIL
42
OIL & GAS
50
conoil
41.84
OIL & GAS

And the 10 Brands to Watch are:
1. Ajeast
2. Artee Group
3. Computer Warehouse Group
4. Daraju Industries
5. Masters Energy
6. Payporte
7. Slot Nigeria
8. Smile Network
9. Wakanow
10. Yudala